By T. H. Baker. 37 9 



continually to celebrate masses whenever there is an auditory. 

 All other priests, likewise, daily resorting thither from devotion, 

 shall have power to celebrate, and the sub-warden, for the time 

 being, shall furnish them with bread, wine, and all requisites for 



veneracione Sanctce Marice Virginis, JTorce de Trinitate, Horce de Sancto 

 Spiritu, Horce in honore Sancte Crucis, and (most commonly of all) Horce de 

 Beata Virgine Maria attached together with private prayers and for the 

 purposes of private devotion to copies of the Psalter, and from the thirteenth 

 century onward these additions, after acquiring a status of their own, as an 

 appendix to the Psalter, were thrown off and became a separate book, varying 

 greatly both in its contents and in its titles. From one point of view the set 

 services, and especially the Horce B.V.M., were the most conspicuous part 

 of the collection, and consequently the name of Horce B.V.M. was given to 

 the whole : from another point of view the educational value of the layman's 

 book (often, no doubt, his only one) was made more prominent than the 

 devotional; the A. B. C, Paternoster, Ave M aria, Devotions in English^ 

 &c, were prefixed to it, and it thus became his lesson book, and was called 

 the " Primer." 



The earliest complete printed book of this class which is known is one issued 

 by W. de Worde circa 1494. Its contents are (1) Orationes quotidiance, 

 (2) Horce B.V.M. in Latin, one series of seven hours to be said without 

 variation; but printed with the special antiphons, chapters, &c, of "Hours 

 of the Passion" and "Hours of the Compassion B.V.M." appended to it, so 

 that these services could be used as alternatives. 



(3) Miscellaneous prayers. 



(4) The seven penitential Psalms and the fifteen gradual Psalms. 



(5) The Litany and Suffrages. 



(6) The Services of the Dead {Placebo, Dirige and Commendation). 



(7) The Psalms of the Passion, xxii — xxxi., with the selection from the 

 Psalms known as S. Jerome's Psalter. 



(8) An appendix in English, containing " The xv Oes and other prayers. 

 The tender care which the primitive and medieval Church bestowed upon 



the departed is a natural sequel of its care for the sick and dying. A con- 

 tinuous round of prayer was maintained. During the last agony psalms and 

 litanies were said, ending with a solemn farewell in the name of the blessed 

 Trinity, the orders of angels, and the company of saints, and a solemn series 

 of petitions to God to deliver the soul of his servant from all dangers. After 

 death came the service of Commendation, consisting of psalms with their 

 antiphons and collects at intervals, and during it the body was prepared for 

 burial. Psalmody again accompanied the carrying of the corpse to the Church. 

 Then began the services connected with the burial ; first the Office of the 

 [Dead (Evensong, Mattins, and Lauds), then the Requiem Mass, then a short 

 I form of Commendation and the censing and sprinkling with holy water, of 

 i the body, and lastly the actual Burial Service. After the funeral, Memorial 

 Services were said, both the Office of the Dead and the Requiem Mass, 

 [especially during the month immediately following and on the anniversary. 



